What Equipment Do I Need to Clear a Lot?

Lot clearing on a future house pad is a CTL with a bucket or grapple-like patience, a mini for roots and stumps you can actually pull, and a dump trailer for the burn-pile that the city will not let you burn. We do not rent forestry mulchers or feller bunchers. If it is timber, hire a tree service and then call us for the dirt.

Equipment for clearing a lot

Primary machines

Compact track loader

Primary

T550 class. S550 wheeled only on dry, sacrificial ground.

Push brush, load debris, and keep ground pressure down on a lot you still have to build on.

Skip it when the lot is already bare dirt and you just need to grade — skip to site prep.

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Dump trailer

Primary

7×14 for real debris. Multiple runs beat one overloaded axle.

Green waste and junk have to leave. Piling it on the future pad is not a plan.

Skip it when a 20-yard dumpster is cheaper for mixed junk and you can load it with the CTL.

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Optional / nice to have

Mini excavator with thumb

Optional

E35 or 305.5 depending on stump size and soil.

Roots, small stumps, and buried junk the loader will just smear around.

Skip it when there are no trees and the CTL is already cleaning up.

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Boom lift

Optional

Articulating 45–63 ft depending on canopy. See tree trimming.

Only if you are pruning large trees you intend to keep, not if you are clearing.

Skip it when the trees are coming out. A boom is not a felling plan.

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Typical pairing

Most house lots: T550 + 7×14 dump, add the mini when stumps and roots appear. Tree service first if anything is over what a thumb can pull. Then go to site prep.

Brush and junk

T550-class CTL is the broom. Wheels only if you do not care about the soil structure you still have to build on. A dump trailer or a roll-off takes the debris; do not bury construction trash in the pad.

Trees this fleet can honestly handle

Small trees and stumps a mini with a thumb can winch and pull. Anything you would need a chipper, climber, or crane for belongs to a tree crew. A boom lift can put a person into a canopy for pruning — that is tree trimming, not clearing.

Leave the lot buildable

Do not strip and then drive ruts that become ponds. When the junk is gone, you are in site-prep territory: grade and compact. Clearing is not grading.